When I find myself needing to take out some pent-up anger, or when I’m simply in the mood for some good old-fashioned mindless violence, I turn to one of a few of my personal favorite games. Sometimes, though, I’m not in the mood for the stealthy complexity of a Hitman title or the unadulterated madness of a Grand Theft Auto game.

In those cases, I typically fire up Robot Entertainment’s 2011 release Orcs Must Die! (henceforth referred to as “OMD”). Although OMD is one of my favorites because of the niche it fills, I’ve never actually come close to finishing its campaign. In light of this, I thought I would revisit it for the first time in a while and progress through the campaign a bit further so that I could discuss my experiences with it over the course of this review.

As OMD’s title implies, its plot is relatively simple. You play as the apprentice of a master sorcerer and orc-slayer who met his accidental demise while going about his work. The sorcerer bequeathed to you his book of spells so that you may continue his crucial task of defending portals known as “rifts” from hordes of rampaging orcs and their allies.

To go about this, you must choose from a selection of several weapons and traps from the sorcerer’s spell book at the beginning of each level. You’ll then use whatever you selected to help you kill several waves of orcs.

For example, one of the first traps you can select is a simple tile of spikes which, when activated, will spring up and impale whichever orc was unfortunate enough to blunder into it. Most traps will need to recharge for a certain amount of time before they can be activated again, however. Additionally, you unlock one new trap for each level you complete, as completing levels will allow you to “draw on more of each rift’s power.”

Most traps can be placed virtually wherever you see fit, though there are some exceptions to this rule. In order to place any traps, however, you’ll need currency. You start each level with a set amount of currency which lets you afford your first few traps, and you then earn more during each wave as you kill orcs. Any currency you accumulate is specific to your current level and doesn’t carry over to any future levels.

At the beginning of each level, you’ll be given as much time as you deem necessary to place your first set of traps. In these cases, the game will let you decide when you’re ready for the first wave to charge in. This may occur between waves on certain levels as well, although you’re usually only given a few seconds of downtime between most waves.

Of course, you are by no means required to rely entirely on whichever traps you select to kill the entirety of each wave of enemies. Indeed, wholly relying on traps to achieve victory in most levels is quite an ill-advised strategy. As such, you’ll often have to get your hands dirty by killing some orcs yourself.

Thankfully, you have access to a few weapons to help you in this endeavor. You’ll always have a magical crossbow in your inventory which allows you to fight the orcs from a distance. If you aim carefully, you can land instantly-fatal headshots with the crossbow. If you’d prefer to get up close and personal with each orc you kill, however, you can always select the sorcerer’s “bladestaff” as one of the items at your disposal for a given level.

I should also mention that at the end of each level, you are graded on your performance. Upon completing a level, you’re awarded between one and five skulls provided you’re not playing on the Apprentice difficulty setting. The more of these skulls you receive at the end of a level, the better your performance was.

Each level only permits you to let a certain number of enemies reach and pass through the rift you’re tasked with defending before you fail the level. If you didn’t quite reach a level’s failure state, but you let more than a small handful of enemies through the rift, you’ll receive fewer skulls for your less-than-perfect performance. As you might expect, you’ll get all five skulls if you don’t let a single enemy near the rift.

These skulls can then be used as currency to purchase upgrades for each trap you’ve unlocked. Some traps only have minor upgrades, such as the tar trap increasing its slow on enemies occupying it. These minor upgrades typically cost fewer skulls, while more substantial upgrades tend to be more costly.

I’ll conclude by stating that as I mentioned earlier, I quite enjoy virtually everything OMD has to offer. Even if I don’t feel the need to vent some troubling emotions out of my system, I always enjoy some mindless orc-based violence. I might not be as quick or efficient as I used to be when it comes to landing headshots, and I might find myself overwhelmed on some unfamiliar levels. None of that has ever diminished my enjoyment of the game as a whole.

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Orcs Must Die!

$9.99 USD

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Gameplay is Relatively Easy to Learn
• Lengthy, Challenging Campaign
• Great Mechanics

Cons

• Amount of Violence May Prove Unsettling
• Difficulty Curve Can Sometimes Ramp Up Too Quickly